Have Ideas For City Park Improvements?

Do you have ideas for City park improvements? Sacramento residents have until January 31 to provide the City with ideas and suggestions. Responses to The Sandbox Survey will help the City develop the Park Project Programming Guide.

Sacramento City residents love their parks – and some Sacramento parks are being loved to death. Heavy usage and the passage of time have taken its toll on park infrastructure and facilities.

The Park Project Programming Guide, a list of unfunded new park and recreation capital projects, will help City staff identify and prioritize projects throughout the City when funding becomes available.

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Measure U, the temporary ½ cent sales tax enacted by voters in 2012, provides the Sacramento City Parks and Recreation Department with an estimated $4.73 million a year. Note: Measure U will expire on March 31, 2019.

McKinley Park BBQ

$4.73 million a year until Measure U expires may sound like a lot of money – but there is also a lot of competition for these funds.

According to the City website Sacramento has 226 parks and parkways totaling nearly 3,200 acres of land. There are three types of parks: neighborhood parks, community parks and regional parks.

Neighborhood parks range in size from 2 to 10 acres, and serve a ½ mile radius.

Community parks range in size from 6 to 60 acres, and serve a 3 mile radius or several neighborhoods.

Regional parks generally range from 75 to 200 acres and serve the entire City and beyond.

If you are wondering what type of projects qualify for consideration a look at the list of projects the Sacramento City Council recently approved may help. Projects recently approved include:

The Sandbox Survey gave me an opportunity to share with City staff an issue I noticed last summer at McKinley Park.

McKinley Park is very heavily utilized, and the picnic area behind the tennis courts is (especially during summer weekends) more often than not overflowing with large family groups celebrating birthdays, etc.

After a busy weekend the whole picnic area is often “trashed”, with trash receptacles filled and garbage strewn about. More trash cans may not be the whole solution – but it certainly can’t hurt.

Some of the picnic tables are in deplorable condition and should simply be removed. The same goes for some of the “bleachers” (presumably from the tennis court area) that can currently be found situated near some of the picnic tables.

The BBQ’s in the picnic area should also be individually evaluated and those that need to be should be removed and/or replaced. I notice that many groups bring and use their own – often large – BBQ’s so if funding is not available removal seems a better option than leaving those unsuitable for use in place.

McKinley Park Picnic Table (metal)

Why do I say this? My theory – and I certainly could be wrong – is that perhaps some of those utilizing that particular McKinley Park picnic area may be more considerate if the facility were in better condition to start with.

Comments on Needed City Park Improvements?

If you have ideas or suggestions fill out The Sandbox Survey and then submit a comment here sharing the name of the park and your idea or suggestion for improvement.

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